Frequently Asked Questions

The NearlyFreeSpeech.NET FAQ (*)

Customization (*)

What canonical name redirection settings are available?

How do I enable directory indexes for my site?

How do I create a website for the sole purpose of forwarding visitors to another website?

When should the rewrite log be used?

How do I change the text displayed for missing pages and other errors?

What should my site's canonical name be?

What is a per-alias document root?

What path should I use for .htpasswd files?

How do I restrict which IP addresses can access my site?

How do I control redirection of HTTP visitors to HTTPS?

Once you have TLS working for your site, visitors to the HTTP version will be redirected to the HTTPS version by default, but you can control this behavior from our control panel.

  1. Go to the Site Information panel for your site.
  2. In the "Config Information" box, select the "Edit" button on the "HTTPS Redirection" line.
  3. Set the Canonical HTTPS value to "on" if you want HTTP visitors redirected to HTTPS and "off" if you do not.

(Don't worry, this setting does not apply to any alias of the site that is not set up for TLS.)

You can also optionally indicate strict transport security. However, we don't recommend doing this unless you understand what it's for and how it works. If you get this wrong, you could potentially lock visitors out of your site for six months. The benefit is that if you do this, it will inform browsers to automatically use HTTPS to access your site, even if someone types in an http:// URL.

If you want to do this, add a line to an .htaccess file in your site's public directory something like:

Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=3600;" "expr=%{req_novary:X-Forwarded-Proto}=='https'"

Once you are very, very sure everything is working properly, you can change the 3600 to 15552000 and optionally add "includeSubDomains" after the semicolon to improve the rating of your site's security on sites like SSLlabs. However, be very careful in doing so, as this value represents 180 days, and if you make a mistake such as redirecting people to an HTTPS version of an alias that isn't set up for HTTPS, you can potentially lock them out of your site for that length of time.

Can I set up more than one alias for my site?

How do I make my site fast and scalable?

What is a run script?

How do I change the server type my site uses?

How do I set up a custom server process?

Which server type should I choose?